Man with replica gun shot, killed in Huntington

HUNTINGTON BEACH – A police officer shot and killed a man armed with what turned out to be a replica handgun during a confrontation Thursday afternoon in a Huntington Beach neighborhood, police said.

Officers about 4:30 p.m. responded to reports of a man and woman arguing behind a restaurant in the 4900 block of Warner Avenue, Huntington Beach police Lt. Mitch O'Brien said. The caller told police the man had walked toward him and threatened him with what appeared to be a handgun.

Officers in a police helicopter saw the man and woman walking into a neighborhood close to the restaurant, O'Brien said.

An officer on the ground confronted the man on a residential street near Milo Drive and Hoskins Lane. The man pulled what appeared to be a handgun from his waistband, O'Brien said, and the officer shot him.

The man, whom authorities have not identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers located and detained the woman the man had been arguing with, police said. The relationship between the two wasn't immediately clear.

After the shooting authorities determined the weapon that had appeared to be a handgun was a "replica semiautomatic pistol."

A nearby resident said she heard four gunshots and a helicopter overhead ordering a man to stay on the ground. Dylan Sorensen, who ran out of her residence after hearing the gunfire, also said she saw officers trying to revive a man who appeared to have been shot.